The first real mention of stringed puppets is by Herodotus, who records the use of puppets in an Egyptian fertility celebration in honor of Osiris. These puppets had very simple movements. Other simple string puppets include jigging puppets (marionettes a la planchette), who were attached to the legs of performers and made to "dance." Simple string puppets rely on the balance and jointing of the puppet and the skill of the puppeteer for life-like movement.
In its most specific denotation, the term marionette refers to the type of string puppet that hangs suspended by its strings. This is the type of puppet most often called to mind when thinking of string puppets. Marionettes are manipulated in a variety of ways. The strings can be simply held, or tied to the fingers. Most often the strings are attached to a control piece, shaped like a cross or an I. More complicated models involved more than one control piece, often with one for the body and another for the limbs.
Beyond these more familiar models of string puppets, there are other, more complex models. Several cultures developed string puppet models in which the puppets were strung internally. The body of the puppet would be hollow, and the strings would attach to points inside and be strung out through a hole in either the top or the bottom of the puppet. These types of puppets often had many strings - a Burmese version was known to have up to 24 strings. They could also perform very complicated actions like acrobatics. Other cultures developed more removed ways of controlling puppets, such as pulling all the cords from every puppet on stage over a structure and into a back stage area. Sometimes this type of manipulation involved a lowered stage on one level of a structure, and a raised puppeteer platform beyond.
Like all of puppetry, it is difficult to pinpoint when exactly puppeteers began to use strings to control puppets. There is evidence of early puppet systems in Egypt, Greece, India and east Asia. The complex inner string method has been discovered in both Greek and Thai cultures, with the Thai tradition thought to have been taken from an earlier Chinese model. String puppetry continued to flourish through the Middle Ages, even though it was frowned upon by the church. While unsure of the specific dates and eras, we can be sure that string puppets have been a part of human culture for a very long time.
The progression of puppets from masks to basic puppets to marionettes occurred independently in several primitive societies, indicating that it is not an art passed by cultural contact, but a natural progression of human desire for expression. The genesis of puppetry is often associated with religious ceremony, but perhaps more telling is a Hindu myth of puppet origins, in which Shiva and Parvati visit a carpenter's shop and Parvati makes the carpenter's wooden dolls come to life. When the carpenter begs Parvati to give them permanent life, she replies by telling them that he is their creator, and so it falls to him to do that. The carpenter works until he invents a way to manipulate the dolls, and they become the first puppets. The point of the story is this: Puppets are a manifestation of life, inanimate objects that become animated in order to mimic us, their creators, and give expression to our creativity.